Protests over delay in sorting out electricity woes

Members of resident welfare associations demonstrated at a public hearing at the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Thursday over complaints of neglect of consumer interests and demands for an audit.

Members of resident welfare associations demonstrated at a public hearing at the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Thursday over complaints of neglect of consumer interests and demands for an audit.

Several of the members wore black bands and badges as a mark of protest. The DERC held a hearing on the true-up for the financial year 2010-11, review and provisional true-up for financial year 2011-12 and multi-year tariff petitions for financial years 2012-13 and 2014-15.

“They are not doing anything to address the problems of consumers. Our demand for an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has fallen on deaf ears.

We have decided to boycott the hearings till the time of the CAG audit. We want issues such as fast meters, performance standards of power distribution companies and the other problems to be addressed,” Rajiv Kakaria, a member of Greater Kailash I resident welfare association, said.

Some of the associations from east Delhi also demanded that the hearings be suspended till the CAG report on distribution companies is made public.

The associations are in protest mode over consumer woes that the DERC has failed to sort out in the past few months.

The associations have also challenged the DERC’s decision to allow fuel-cost adjustment. According to the associations, this only amounts to just 5-7% of the total production cost, and allowing a 5% hike on the total power tariff is unnecessary. “We have looked into this issue and, according to our calculation, the differential cannot be more than 0.25% to 0.5%, after all it is only an adjustment of the increase in fuel cost,” said a member of one of the associations.